Young Guitar Exclusive!

Tom Scholz
Boston

Everyone forgot about Boston until they released the Third Stage album in 1986. Eight years later, the 4th Boston album (Walk On) was released this month. Boston has become a legend for releasing an album only every 8 years. So who knows, maybe the next album won’t be out till the year 2002! Even if it’s sooner, Boston still only has 4 albums out in 18 years. That makes them the slowest band in rock history. But any way you cut it, a true fan can take any part of this album and say, "Yep, that’s Boston." But, Tom Scholz’s guitar work is much more aggressive than on earlier albums, with a veteran guitarist feel. As on the Third Stage album, Tom uses his Rockman technology in the studio to get that perfect tone. This point should appeal to those young listeners hearing Boston for the 1st time.

"I’ve been working on the development of the Rockman

for the past 8 years."

Young Guitar: I’m sure the Walk On album as a whole carries a specific concept but, where did the title come from?

Tom Scholz: The title and concept came from the "Walk On Medley". Through this album I’m expressing emotions based on real peoples’ experiences. Anyone who can understand the lyrics can understand the emotions behind it. It may difficult for children but the average Boston fan shouldn’t have any problem understanding this. Therefore, from the listener I’d like them to listen to the album from start to finish in sequence. There’s a lot of meaning in this particular song order.

YG: What kind of message are you trying to share through the "Walk On Medley"?

TS: Each song has a double meaning. It may be a significant or insignificant meaning. It’s a song of praise to those people who fight for righteousness. As human beings we’ve come to this Earth and no matter what happens, we must continue looking forward and walk on.

YG: In the 8 years since Third Stage through everything that’s gone on, I’m sure there’s been many changes in and around you.

TS: Yes. I went through a divorced and moved to a new house. But now I’m glad that the album is finally done. I’ve never been this happy that I finished an album before. I’m well know for not listening to music on an everyday basis but for the 1st time in my life I had a car stereo installed. I brought in the Toyota I’ve been driving for the past 8 years to the dealer and asked them to install an original car stereo. The dealer almost went into a panic looking all over America for an original stereo for my car which had over 100,000 miles on it. [laughing]. Listening to "Walk On" in the car is the best!! I’ve known that for as long as I’ve been making albums but this is the 1st time I feel I’ve gotten it right.

YG: I’m sure everyone’s been asking you this but, what have you been doing for the past 8 years?

TS: I’ve been working on the new Rockmans. Right now I’ve only got 2 prototypes. One’s in the recording studio, the other is in the rehearsal studio. At first my concept was to just take the Rockman one step further but as I developed it, I was never satisfied with "just one step further." Then I decided to make and finish the ultimate recording processor. We ended up making something totally different from the original Rockman so we thought up a different name for it. We still haven’t decided yet but we’ll probably call it the "Ultimatum Preamp". As a company we are hurrying to make a footpedal and rackmount version but it’s a big project so it’ll take awhile before it’s available in stores. I used it on most of the new album.

YG: What’s the difference between the Rockman and the Ultimatum preamp?

TS: I started by modifying the Rockman to include better compression and equalization but as it came together I started thinking that it may be able to become the Ultimate Rockman. Then I started to think about how I should redesign it for mass production.

YG: Your recording studio is different than the one you used for Third Stage isn’t it.

TS: Yes. The old studio was too small so I started looking for a larger one. The new studio is all brand new technology utilizing a preset system. Simply put, any instrument I want to record is completely setup for the presets I like. For example, compression, equalization, etc. can all be assigned to any channel and activated by pressing a button. All I have to do is plug in the guitar and it goes into recording mode. Of course I can change the sounds too. For acoustic guitar, all I have to do is play in front of the mike and the necessary compressor and equalizer effects are all preset. The whole studio is setup like that for all the instruments I like to use giving it various meritsÖ For example, if I want to change the guitar section for the chorus 3 months down the road, I can do it and it would sound exactly the same as the prerecorded material.

YG: Any other characteristics of your new studio?

TS: Since it was designed to record Boston albums, the sounds used on my albums (drums, bass, Hammond organ, acoustic guitar) can be covered with no problem. The basic design took one year. Then another 2 years to build it. So it took a total of 3 years to finish the studio. I then started recording the new album in late 1990 and finished in February 1994. So roughly it took 3 years to record the album.

YG: So did you record in analog like always?

TS: Yes. In the end I did my mixdown from a 24 track analog recorder. Before mixdown I used another 24 track deck exclusively for vocals so I could try out any melody possibilities. Once I have everything down on the 2 decks, I synchronize them by hand for mixdown.

YG: So you don’t use a synchronizer?

TS: Nope! I do it all by hand. You may think that’s an idiotic way of doing it but it’s what I found that works best for me. Of course it takes time but [laughing] I have the freedom to work out the melodies like a puzzle.

YG: I assume that is not the standard way of recording but, are there any merits to doing it that way?

TS: The thing I like about it is that you can try out different lyrics over the basic tracks without ruining the basic tracks by overplaying them. I don’t advise everyone to do it like this but it’s one way I figured out to keep the sound quality of the basic tracks. Doing it the old way, by the time I got to mixdown, it was all muddy and warped sounding.

YG: I see. So you are experimenting with different ways of recording.

TS: Exactly! It’s not uncommon for me to play just one line 100 times to figure out how I want to do it. [Laughing]. Conversely, if I tried doing that with a synchronizer it would take even longer. So lately I’ve gotten pretty good at sitting in front of the 2 tape decks and synching them by hand. [Laughing]. Everyone else may think I’m weird but [Laughing].